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'06 salaries, incentives show growth: Business Travel News' 23rd annual Travel Manager Salary & Attitude Survey.

Article Excerpt
While numerically, Business Travel News' 23rd annual Travel Manager Salary & Attitude Survey uncovered a relatively static job market and unremarkable salary increases, corporate travel buyers certainly aren't standing still. They are concentrating on improving their travel programs and honing their skills amidst a relatively tumultuous 12 months that proved sometimes, the only constant in the business travel industry is change.

BTN's survey showed travel managers' salaries averaged $98,545 last year, a 5.4 percent increase from $93,195 in 2004. While the figure shows growth, it pales in comparison from years past, most notably in 2004, when on average buyers saw annual salaries jump 11.5 percent. Last year's small pay increase seems to reflect an overall stagnant industry job market. "There's hiring going on, but nothing stands out," said Dawn Penfold, president of The Meeting Candidate Network, a meetings industry recruitment firm in New York. "Everything is status quo."

A stable environment however, doesn't mean that some buyers aren't recognizing the pressure associated with such a dynamic and constantly evolving industry. "This has been going on for a while, but it seems to be escalating: You're seeing a lot of travel managers leaving the industry, not necessarily being fired, but the burnout level is starting to take effect," said Kevin Maguire, director of global travel services, at Austin, Texas-based Applied Materials. "You're starting to see good managers say, 'I just don't want to do this anymore.'"

According to P. Jason King, CEO of P. Jason King Associates, an executive search, career development and consulting firm in New York, salaries in 2006 are on the rise, though he added, "We only handle senior travel management, which may be why we're seeing more opportunities than some of our competitors."

Six months ago, Yasuo Sonoda was a buyer perusing the job market. Now global travel manager at Business Objects in San Jose, Calif., Sonoda offered advice to industry job seekers focused on increasing their earnings through a career move: "A good way to determine what a prospective company would pay is to look at classifieds in a job search's zip code for salary listings of a procurement director or procurement manager position," he said. "In those jobs, you can figure out the range of how much they're going to pay you in your area. That's a good benchmark to use," Also something to think about, according to Sonoda: "If you're hired to save X amount for the company, what the company's going to figure out is, 'OK, we have this lump sum of money that we're hiring somebody to reduce, how much is it going to cost us per dollar of that person's salary?' That's the number they're going to be running, so be aware of that."

King said employers during the last year have been more inclined to make up for small salary increases with incentives....

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